"The game is the game, to be sure, and I doubt the WNBA really cares about the collateral damage of a mid-major program in the college ranks. But if the practice of taking swings on college coaches becomes more commonplace in the future, there has to be a way to ease the strain of potentially derailing entire seasons for programs that stand to lose their leader."
Where does this "way to ease the strain" come from? The W? The NCAA? Contractual language (which isn't a global solution and doesn't necessarily prevent this)?
Even with the the transfer option available after a coaching change, that's a tight fit between the end of the W season and before the NCAAW season gets underway. Seems like an unfortunate, unavoidable flaw in the system because of the calendar.
I think it’s more of a calendar question. Because the front end of the calendar is messy with the NCAA too. I don’t think you flip the W out of the summer but maybe a couple weeks could be better than a guy having to leave two games into the year.
There's no think about it -- even if you wanted to, you cannot flip the W out of summer with so many teams playing in shared NBA arenas (and those arenas also being used for other events). So if you can't move up in the spring (because of the NCAA calendar, which you don't control), there's nothing to be done from the W side of things.
Even if this hire was done a month ago, the college players would be impacted almost in the same way. Sure, you can transfer -- but who has roster space/has a place for someone this late in the game? It's also possible the timing of the hire was affected by other factors outside of Smesko's control -- maybe the Dream was first targeting someone else but things fell apart, so they circled back to Smesko.
I'm reminded of what my work mentor told me many times -- don't come to a meeting with problems. Come with solutions. I agree there's a bit of a problem here, but raising it without considering if there's a viable solution is a bit of wasted digital ink.
Tbh I’d rather the W move the calendar back, if anything. The worry is competing with the NFL/NBA but I don’t think ending the season in the start of November is materially different than end of October. Even if you’re a month into the college season, there’s precedent for coaches leaving via hires or fires. Two games just feels so drastic. Under no circumstance would you flip the calendar .
Again, it’s a function but just because there isn’t a solution doesn’t mean there isn’t inherently a problem if this becomes a consistent hiring strategy. As a one off? Game is the game like I said.
Who said there isn't a problem? I said I agreed there was a problem. But you said in the piece "there has to be a way to ease the strain." I don't think your suggestion would do that (in fact I think it would make it worse), but I don't want to belabor the point.
Not every problem has a solution. You suggested there "has to be" something that would help here. I asked you what that is, but I'm not convinced by your argument.
"The game is the game, to be sure, and I doubt the WNBA really cares about the collateral damage of a mid-major program in the college ranks. But if the practice of taking swings on college coaches becomes more commonplace in the future, there has to be a way to ease the strain of potentially derailing entire seasons for programs that stand to lose their leader."
Where does this "way to ease the strain" come from? The W? The NCAA? Contractual language (which isn't a global solution and doesn't necessarily prevent this)?
Even with the the transfer option available after a coaching change, that's a tight fit between the end of the W season and before the NCAAW season gets underway. Seems like an unfortunate, unavoidable flaw in the system because of the calendar.
I think it’s more of a calendar question. Because the front end of the calendar is messy with the NCAA too. I don’t think you flip the W out of the summer but maybe a couple weeks could be better than a guy having to leave two games into the year.
There's no think about it -- even if you wanted to, you cannot flip the W out of summer with so many teams playing in shared NBA arenas (and those arenas also being used for other events). So if you can't move up in the spring (because of the NCAA calendar, which you don't control), there's nothing to be done from the W side of things.
Even if this hire was done a month ago, the college players would be impacted almost in the same way. Sure, you can transfer -- but who has roster space/has a place for someone this late in the game? It's also possible the timing of the hire was affected by other factors outside of Smesko's control -- maybe the Dream was first targeting someone else but things fell apart, so they circled back to Smesko.
I'm reminded of what my work mentor told me many times -- don't come to a meeting with problems. Come with solutions. I agree there's a bit of a problem here, but raising it without considering if there's a viable solution is a bit of wasted digital ink.
Tbh I’d rather the W move the calendar back, if anything. The worry is competing with the NFL/NBA but I don’t think ending the season in the start of November is materially different than end of October. Even if you’re a month into the college season, there’s precedent for coaches leaving via hires or fires. Two games just feels so drastic. Under no circumstance would you flip the calendar .
Again, it’s a function but just because there isn’t a solution doesn’t mean there isn’t inherently a problem if this becomes a consistent hiring strategy. As a one off? Game is the game like I said.
Who said there isn't a problem? I said I agreed there was a problem. But you said in the piece "there has to be a way to ease the strain." I don't think your suggestion would do that (in fact I think it would make it worse), but I don't want to belabor the point.
Not every problem has a solution. You suggested there "has to be" something that would help here. I asked you what that is, but I'm not convinced by your argument.